so a ? for those who own one of these units,
could it be modified to operate fwd movement entirely
with the foot pedal?
when i test drove one earlier this year, i thought it might be
alot easier to have one hand free all the time

JB, there is a cruise lock pedal to lock the speed so you can be one hand free. We tried a pedal like a truck gas pedal linked interactive to work like a gas pedal and it was scary. Guys would step on the machine not paying attention and ZOOOOMMM it would jump out from under them. So no dice on an interactive gas type pedal.